


The Power Within Us All

by MrMeowzIII



Category: Super Mario & Related Fandoms, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Bravery (Undertale) - Freeform, Chara-like Bowser Jr, Character Death, Determination (Undertale), Empty Soul (Undertale), Evil Plans, Gen, Integrity (Undertale) - Freeform, Justice (Undertale), Kidnapping, Kindness (Undertale) - Freeform, Mad Scientists, Melting, More Mario Universe than Undertale, Patience (Undertale) - Freeform, Perseverance (Undertale) - Freeform, Recovery, SOUL Absorption (Undertale), Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:20:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27411850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrMeowzIII/pseuds/MrMeowzIII
Summary: An idea that I had one day and decided I should write a little of.  I don't know if I'll finish it, but I thought it was cool.Basically, two mad scientists discover W. D. Gaster's papers on soul research.  Determined to cause the downfall of Bowser and Peach's reigns and spread chaos, they easily come up with eight prime test subjects.  Thankfully, they underestimate the power of DETERMINATION.Ludwig-Integrity, Lemmy-Kindness, Roy-Determination, Wendy-Justice, Iggy-Perseverance, Morton-Bravery, Larry-Patience, Jr.-Empty
Relationships: Koopa | Bowser/Peach-hime | Peach Toadstool
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Multidimensional Science

It started out as a normal day. Bowser and Peach’s castles were bustling with activity, as usual. Mario and Luigi worked in toad town, fixing broken pipes and signing autographs. Peach sunbathed on her balcony in the early summer sun before her meetings later that day. Bowser barked orders at his loyal servants, who were constructing a new troop outfitting center in the castle. Bowser’s kids were hanging around the castle, doing various things. Not much happened to them when Bowser didn’t need them for military service. This normal hustle and bustle had lasted for quite a while, since Bowser had stopped trying to kidnap Peach and focus on his own kingdom. It was nice. A little too nice for some people.   
_______________________________________

Months ago, with the increased contact between the two kingdoms, there had been a chance for two scientists to meet. Cray Z, a toad from toad town, and Kraig Koopa, a koopa working in Bowser’s castle under the famous Kamek in the scientific development program. Iggy was a frequent visitor. They were both secretly against the current peace and strived to cause conflict between the two kingdoms. Themselves along with many others were dissatisfied with Bowser and Peach’s leadership. Peach was far too vulnerable and Bowser was much too stubborn for their own good. Also, it was no secret that the two had feelings for each other. With this as a backdrop, it was easy for the two scientists to build up a following for themselves. Their operation was completely under wraps, with neither Bowser nor Peach ever hearing anything of it. They had built a lab in Iceland, inside of one of the many tall mountains. The government here was very weak and wasn’t able to run surveillance over much of their territory. They were basically a non presence outside of the capital city. The lab had gradually grown larger, becoming a large facility driving deep into the earth. The whole mountain was now their base. With all of the money from their recruits, Cray Z and Kraig had been able to start researching new sciences. They had taken particular interest in one specific type. 

Soulology was an alien form of study. It’s only documents had appeared from a distortion when all worlds could have ended, all noted by the same scientist. W. D. Gaster. Whoever this person was, they knew much about the topic and had devised specific machines to create artificial souls. Once Kraig and Cray had gotten their hands on these documents, they had fully thrown themselves into research. Apparently, these souls held incredible power and could give someone enough power to break magical seals or something. It was the godlike power they imagined would be perfect for destroying the peace. If they had that power, they themselves could rule the world. The only problem was that you had to take them from someone else, and instilling someone with a soul was very dangerous. Their plan was to create a soul, give it to someone, and if they survived, they would then be killed and their soul would be taken and absorbed by either Kraig or Cray. That way they could avoid the potentially fatal side effects themselves.

Time passed, and one night, they had done it. Using large amounts of energy and following the information on the documents, they had created a white glowing heart. The lab was filled with excitement. They had extracted a Goomba from Toad Town and transported it to their lab. It was shaking with fear. They strapped it into the chair and prepared to activate the soul insertion. The Goomba called out, but behind the thick industrial glass, it was nothing more than a whisper. The process began shortly after. The Goomba sat still, terrified by what was happening to him. The soul was carefully moved out of a stasis jar and into the insertion machine. It was done completely mechanically, as there could be no risk of accidental absorption by anyone else. Once everything was safe, the insertion procedure began. It moved closer and closer to the Goomba, the soul being moved to the front injector, ready for absorption. It’s white light filled the room, and the Goomba could only stare. He was entranced, and he would’ve reached out if he had arms. He could feel its power. And then, it released it. His body absorbed it upon contact, and for a few seconds, he felt immense power. But it was too much for his weak body. The soul was too strong. Glowing cracks covered his body, and then he exploded into pure energy. The room shook, and the power cut from the building. The only light that remained was from eight differently colored hearts. Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, and a very dark red, almost black. The emergency generators kicked on, and the power returned. The researchers, still safe behind the now cracked glass, quickly rushed to contain the eight sources of very powerful energy. Stasis jars were quickly used to trap all eight souls safely inside of them. It was a shame that they had lost this testing room and the subject, but overall it seemed as though it had worked in their favor. They now had eight much more controllable souls that they could research without the possibility of explosion. 

After weeks of research, the scientists had finally felt they had enough information on the eight souls to continue working. The soul that had captured the most attention was the dark red soul. It seemed like it was the shell left behind from the original soul after the split. It had a relatively high amount of Determination, similar to the red soul, but not nearly as much. The difference was, it showed absolutely no traces of any other trait. Even the red soul had a little bit of every other trait inside of it. The documents pointed out Determination as the most important, and W. D. Gaster made it seem like it was the thing he’d wanted the most. They were going to abduct more Goombas to hold the souls, before Kraig came up with an idea. There were eight souls that needed to be absorbed, and he knew exactly where they could find eight test subjects that would be strong enough to hold the souls and also create the most chaos possible. With that in mind, they readied themselves for their mission to Bowser’s Castle.


	2. Capture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids get snatched.

Back in the present...  
Larry rolled out of bed. He was so bored, he had tried to take a nap to pass time, but he wasn’t tired at all. Everyone else was probably busy, and he didn’t want to bother them. Lunch was soon anyways, he could just ask them then. He sighed. “I guess I’ll play on my computer.” He said to himself. Great, now he was going crazy. He didn’t think this castle needed two Iggys. Could you imagine? He hopped into his chair and turned on his monitor. For a second, he thought he saw something in the black reflection. But when he turned, there was no one there. He shrugged and went back to playing. He kept getting this weird feeling in his chest, like something was off. He was used to spying. He knew what it was like when someone was watching him. He took a deep breath and kept calm. Don’t let them know you know they’re there. He kept playing while silently checking if there was someone there. He didn’t see anyone… something grabbed his arm. He screamed but was instantly muffled by cloth that was stuffed in his mouth. He felt a sharp prick in his arm and then everything started to fade to black. His body slumped over and he felt something moving him. Then he went numb. 

Lunch was ready, and they were all waiting for Larry. He was really late. “If he’s not coming I’m eating now!” Bowser yelled. He was busy, so he was being really impatient. Lemmy sighed. He wondered what Larry was doing. Everyone else was already eating. Oh well. After lunch, Lemmy went to see why Larry didn’t come to lunch. He walked up to his room and knocked on the door. No response. “C’mon Larry don’t be like that.” Lemmy said to himself. He opened the door and saw nobody inside. Larry’s computer was still on. Lemmy wondered if he was hiding. He walked to Larry’s computer and shut it off. “Ya know, if you’re trying to hide from me, leaving your computer on isn’t the best idea.” He heard someone move. Lemmy smiled and quietly walked over to the spot. A big lump on Larry’s bed. Really, Larry? It’s almost like you wanted to be found. Lemmy grabbed the edge of the sheet and pulled it back. “There you are-“ The person underneath was definitely not Larry, and they were pointing a gun at him. His eyes widened and he instantly bolted out of the room, feeling the wind of some kind of dart fly behind him. Larry was gone. Lemmy turned a corner and ran right into Iggy, knocking them both to the floor. “We need to go!” Lemmy shouted. “Why what’s going on-“ a dart stuck Iggy right in the arm. “No!” Lemmy yelled, before he felt a dart hit his shoulder. He heard people walking towards him as he blacked out. 

Morton was in the kitchen eating food. Lunch hadn’t been enough, and it was cold, thanks to Larry. He hoped nobody came in. Then he’d get in trouble again. He thought he heard the door open and he froze. He looked and it was closed. Ok, he was fine. He went back to stuffing his face. He picked up a box of frozen chicken nuggets with the intent to eat them, but he felt two sharp pains in both of his arms. He checked and saw two darts inside of them. He pulled them out quickly and turned around. He then fell on his face. He was so tired…

Wendy was doing her makeup in her room, making sure it was absolutely perfect. She always had to look her best, afterall. The only princess had to present herself in a dignified manner. While putting on lipstick, she thought she saw someone in the mirror. She turned and nobody was there. She felt pain in her arm and screamed as loud as she could. She saw the dart and tried to scream again, but someone muffled her. She blacked out not long after. 

Roy heard Wendy scream and came running. He threw open her door to find no one inside. “Wendy?!” But she wasn’t there. Roy heard someone behind him and turned, only to get a dart right in his chest. There was a weirdly dressed Toad aiming a gun at him. “Wha..” He fell on the floor, feeling a couple more darts sink into his arms. “No…” He blacked out.

The music that had been playing throughout the room suddenly stopped as Ludwig yelped and clutched his arm. He pulled out the dart as soon as he saw it and quickly grabbed his wand and turned to see Koopas holding guns that were all pointed at him. He tried to cast a spell but about five darts shot into his legs and arms before he could fire it. He fell to the floor and quickly blacked out.

Bowser and his son were busy overseeing the construction of the new troop outfitting building. Jr excitedly shouted orders at the workers. Bowser was smiling, he was sure his son would be a great king. Jr was a little tired, but he would push through for his daddy. Of course he was the only one out here. His siblings were so lazy. It was a good thing that he was gonna be king instead of them. He jumped around telling the servants to put stuff here and there. This was fun! He ran inside to get some more workers, telling his dad that he’d be right back. “Hey! Everyone in here! Daddy said you have to go help outside! Otherwise you’re fired!” All the Koopas quickly ran out of the castle to help their leader except for two. Jr smirked. “Not helping, are we? Then I guess you’ll be happy to know that you’ve been-“ one of the Koopas pulled out a gun and shot him with a dart. “Hey! What was… that….. for……..” He fell to the ground. 

The Koopas grabbed him, satisfied. They had grabbed all eight of their targets. They teleported themselves as well as Bowser Jr into the ship, where they left him with the others. The pile of unconscious bodies almost made them laugh. They were back on their way to Iceland already, their bosses were sure to be proud of them. Maybe they’d get a promotion. They saluted their toad comrades. This had been a job well done. They all laughed as they left the Darklands.


	3. Missing Children

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bowser and Peach freak out.

Bowser laughed as he saw a large crowd of Koopas rush out to help build. Jr had done a good job. This would get done much faster now. He waited for Jr to come back. And waited…. and waited. Where was he? Bowser excused himself to look after a while. He searched, and searched, and searched but he couldn’t find him anywhere. Come to think of it, he couldn’t find any of his children anywhere. When was the last time he’d seen any of them? Lunch. Larry hadn’t been there. Bowser checked their rooms too, just to see if they were there. They weren’t, and he was very worried at this point. He defaulted to his plan he always used when he was overwhelmed. Call Peach. It rang once. Was she busy? It rang twice. He really hoped she wasn’t busy. She picked up. “Hello?” “H-hi Peach. I hope you’re not busy.” “What’s wrong, Bowser?” “I can’t find my kids anywhere. I’ve looked all around the castle, and they were nowhere! Ludwig wasn’t even in his bedroom! Jr was just with me, but now I can’t find him anywhere! I don’t think they just ran away, all their stuff is still here, even the airships! I’m worried!” “Oh my! You haven’t seen them anywhere? I can come and help you look if you want me to.” Bowser really did want her to, but he didn’t think it would be the best idea. “I uh, I don’t know… I don’t want to distract you from work or anything…” Peach sighed. “I assure you, those are the least of my worries when the lives of children are in potential danger. Especially those who consider me as their half mom. Hehe!” Bowser smiled. Her laugh was very cute. But he quickly brought himself back to the more serious matter. His missing children. “I’m sorry Peach. But I think it might be better if you stay at your castle. You can keep up with any news that might come up. Maybe they’ll show up in some article or something. I don’t want to put your kingdom on hold because of this.” Peach sounded a little deflated when she spoke again. “If that is how it must be, then I will accept it. But please contact me if time passes by and you still haven’t found them. I’m worried for their safety too. Don’t leave me out of this please! Thank you for calling and telling me about this. I’m glad that you feel you can discuss things with me in a personal manner.” “I’m more surprised you’re okay with talking to me. Afterall, I’m the one whose been kidnapping you for the past few years.” “It actually worked out for the better I think. Don’t worry about it now. You should look for your children!” “Yeah you’re right. I uh, thanks I guess. For the help. Hopefully it’ll all be better soon. Bye.” “Goodbye, Bowser.” With that, she hung up. Bowser sighed. She really was too good for him. Bowser didn’t know what to do. He had no leads at all on where his children might be. For now, all he could really do was set some troops aside to look for them. He really hoped nothing bad happened to them. 

Hours later, Bowser was pacing anxiously in his study when a group of Koopas came to his door. They had news. “King Bowser! We’re here to imform you about-“ Bowser’s phone rang. It was from Peach. Bowser silenced the Koopas and answered her call. “Hello?” “Hello Bowser, I think I may have some important news for you. My intelligence has discovered some kind of plot to overthrow both of our kingdoms and send us into war. Apparently some organization has been formed and it’s headquarters are somewhere in Iceland. My royal guards captured a member of the organization and held him for questioning. He confirmed this information after a bit of persuasion. We could not get anything else from him, but they hold great contempt for both of us royals and the people close to us. It may be that they are behind your children’s disappearances.” This was more information then Bowser ever thought he would be getting. If that was true, then all of them could very well be…. “Was there anything about them specifically?” “I’m afraid not.” It wasn’t certain then. They might not be…. “I will prepare a fleet to search in Iceland. I will find them and make sure to destroy them. Even if they don’t have my children with them.” “I will send some ships as well, Bowser. I feel as though it is necessary. It does concern my kingdom as well, afterall. You cannot convince me otherwise.” “If you say so, Peach. Thank you for helping me.” “I assure you, it is no problem. Goodbye Bowser.” “Bye Peach.” They hung up. The Koopas still needed to tell Bowser their information. He stared at them. “Well?” “King Bowser! We are here to inform you that the Troopa Outfitting Center is complete! Also, we were going to tell you about that secret organization but Peach beat us to it so it doesn’t matter now.” “Oh. Do you have any additional information?” “Not at this time, Lord Bowser.” “Alright then. Thank you for the news, now please leave, I have an invasion to plan.” “Alright Lord Bowser!” The Koopas saluted him and left. This thing was going down. He really hoped his kids were okay.


	4. Test Subjects

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids get soulful.

It was cold. So cold. And dark. Larry opened his eyes, but he could still barely see anything. Where was he? He had been in his room, and then somebody had grabbed him… and now he was here. Nobody was around. It was just him. He could see that there was only one door. The only light was coming from behind it. He walked to it and tried to open it. It was locked. That wasn’t too surprising. He tried to look under the door to see what was outside. It was too bright to make anything out. It was probably a hallway. Larry retreated back into the darkness and sat down. He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t even see. And he was freezing. The metal floor didn’t help at all. To top it all off, he was really thirsty and hungry as well. What was going on? Was he gonna die here? Please don’t let him die here. Alone, freezing and in the dark. He clutched his knees and tried to cry. Nothing came out of his eyes. Just dry sobs from his throat. This seemed to go on forever until suddenly the lights turned on. The brightness blinded him temporarily. He heard the door open, and soon after he was being roughly escorted out of the room with his hands locked behind him. His vision returned as they reached their destination. He felt so weak that he couldn’t fight back when they pushed him into some type of weird chair. Restraints locked around his arms and legs, rendering him unable to move. He heard someone else call out distantly. It might’ve been one of his brothers. The voice was kind of low. He halfheartedly tried to call back, but the door to the hallway closed before he could be heard. He was alone again, strapped into the chair. He heard muffled voices coming from somewhere. Something started to move in front of him. It kind of looked like a big syringe except it was thicker and had more parts. It was coming closer. A light blue glow emitted from the end of it. Larry struggled to get out of the chair. It was getting really close now. His body suddenly froze, and all he could do was stare at the slowly emerging light blue heart. It touched his chest, and then suddenly Larry’s body absorbed it. His eyes widened. He felt… stronger. There was an extreme pressure in his stomach for a few seconds, but it dissipated quickly. At first he had been worried. But now, he felt like everything was gonna be alright. He just needed to have PATIENCE. 

Lemmy’s small body recoiled as the green soul was absorbed. It hurt for a second, and then his terrible hunger disappeared and everything felt nice. Maybe these people weren’t so bad. Maybe all he needed to do was show some KINDNESS and they would just let all of them go. Everything could be forgiven, right? None of them had done anything. 

As she was being dragged into her room by the weird scientists, Wendy could only think of how JUSTICE needed to be served to these people. They were doing something horrible and were about to get away with it. She didn’t know where her family was, but she was going to break free and save them all.

Morton yelled as he was restrained by the scientists. His fists started to glow orange and he was filled with BRAVERY. Very quickly, something struck him in the back and his magic faded. He yelped and fell to the floor. They started to drag him back to his room. No! He needed to fight back! He just couldn’t move! They trapped him in some kind of net that made it so he couldn’t move or use magic at all. He was then thrown back into the dark room.

Ludwig could only watch as a machine attached itself to him, trying to drain the dark blue magic that was pouring from his hands. He was trapped back inside his room, unable to escape. His INTEGRITY wasn’t really helping him here. These people were evil, and they would do anything to accomplish their goals. Ludwig wondered what they had been planning. 

Iggy was really trying to show PERSEVERANCE, but he was so weak again from the second machine that he couldn’t really do that much. Purple was swirling around him, clouding his glasses. He didn’t know what to do.

Roy and Bowser Jr had heard some of the others’ yells and screams, but they hadn’t been able to do anything. They were trapped here, both in separate rooms like the others. But the souls they would be receiving would be much different to the others. DETERMINATION was a dangerous substance that needed to be handled with extra care. Since all of the other souls had been absorbed and contained without any casualties, Cray felt confident enough to try the more volitile two. Roy would be getting the red soul, and Bowser Jr would be getting the deep crimson soul. Both held significant levels of DETERMINATION, with red having the most. They were the most important for the scientists. As such, there were to be no possibilities for failure. Both subjects were completely unable to move, and the machinery was designed to inject directly into the subject instead letting the soul be absorbed through skin contact. Now that all of the other subjects were being weakened, it was finally time to begin. Both Roy and Bowser Jr were completely unable to fight back, with only small noises from their closed mouths being able to be heard. The machines wrapped around their sides before the massive needle came closer and closer. If they hadn’t had a fear of needles before, there was one there now. And then, it happened. The needles pierced their chest, and the souls were delivered to their hosts. Bowser Jr passed out instantly, the soul bonding with him taking all of his energy away. It was empty and needed energy to fill itself. Almost all of his functions slowed down dramatically, putting him in a coma-like state. Roy didn’t feel anything for a few seconds, but then an intense heat filled his body. He was sweating profusely. Wait no, that was more than sweat… His body was melting. He gazed in horror as his arm dripped onto his legs. The machine had let go of him, but he couldn’t move at all. His body glowed red and his legs stuck together. No! He couldn’t just die like this now! Not as some puddle of himself! He had to stay Determined! With much effort, he managed to stabilize his body and stop the melting. His body was deformed, but it wasn’t falling apart. He had to keep going! He gradually fixed his arms by going back into his melty state temporarily and moving things around until they looked right. He separated his legs, and fixed his melted-together mouth. Everything was okay. He wasn’t dead or some weird puddle abomination on the floor. He was relieved. But he didn’t get too much time to relax before guards came in and tried to take him to his room. He was so tired that he could barely fight back. They dragged him back inside and hooked him up to some machine that drained him further. He could feel himself almost falling apart again. Raw DETERMINATION was the only thing keeping him together.

And so the scientists had gotten what they had wanted. The eight souls had all been accepted by their hosts, without any casualties or losses. After a bit of energy draining they could be easily dispatched and then Kraig and Cray would have all they needed to end the current way of affairs. Peach and Bowser could be easy dethroned and they could take control of both kingdoms and even the world. The last subject just needed to be drained of energy and they would be all set. They knew that had limited time, as one of their agents had been discovered in the Mushroom Kingdom and had been forced to reveal their location. But they were certain everything would get done before anyone got to them. That was until Bowser Jr was plugged into the draining device. His energy hungry soul sucked all of the power out of the building, and that still wasn’t enough for it. The complete loss of power deactivated everything, including the emergency generators and the draining machines for the other seven test subjects. Things could get dangerous for them if this wasn’t resolved quickly. A team of scientists removed Bowser Jr from the machine as quickly as they could. The power came back on, but something wasn’t quite right. He was still out cold, so there was no danger there, but one soul was no longer being detected inside of containment.


	5. Escape from Ice Mountain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids try to escape the compound. Thankfully, Roy pulls through for them.

Wendy knew as soon as she escaped that they were going to be coming for her. Her time to act was now and if she was too slow, she was sure she would be dooming herself and her brothers. She didn’t really know where to go or what to do, that was the only problem. She was sure this new yellow magic did something, she just didn’t know how to use it. She didn’t have her wand, so no rings or anything. Maybe it acted like her wand. Just with her arms instead. She focused herself and felt a jolt in her hands. A small amount of yellow light leaked out of them. She needed a purpose. Bang! Bang! The guards were busting down the door to the room she was inside of. There was a purpose. Dish out justice to the evil people trying to kill them. She felt the light taking shape in her hand. The door burst open, and armed guards poured in. A gun appeared in her hand, and she fired it at the guards almost unthinkingly. Yellow bursts of energy shot out, exploding once they hit their targets. Many guards fell to the floor, unmoving. But many were shooting at her, using real bullets instead of darts this time. She kept on firing, unsure of what else to do. The attacks were strong but used lots of energy she didn’t have. She wouldn’t make it out at this rate. She had an idea and aimed a shot above the door frame, knocking parts of the wall onto some of the shooters, and leaving a bigger space for her to escape out of. She took a deep breath and ran through the crowd, jumping through the door and into the hallway. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she ran down the hallway, stopping at the first room she found along the way. Inside, she found one of her brothers! Lemmy was hanging against the wall, energy being drained from his body. Wendy destroyed the machine controlling the draining and freed Lemmy from its clutches. “T-thank you Wendy. I’m so happy you’re-“ “Lemmy I’m sorry. We don’t really have time to talk right now. People are coming for us!” The door burst open and a guard sent a bullet straight for Wendy’s head. “No!” Lemmy shouted, forming a glowing green pan in front of Wendy. It bounced the bullet back at the toad, killing them instantly. Lemmy stared wide-eyed. “Thank you Lemmy! I could’ve died!” Wendy said. Lemmy guessed that it was better if some random toad died instead of his sister. “Y-Yeah! I didn’t even know I could do that!” Wendy pulled him up to his feet. “Now we need to find everyone else and save them too.” “Yeah!” Lemmy said. There were more guards in the hallways trying to fight them, but Lemmy blocked most of their bullets while Wendy attacked. They searched every room they came across until they finally found Morton in one of them. They cut him off the machine but found him very weak. He could barely move, they had taken so much from him. Without thinking, Lemmy placed his hands on Morton’s body and concentrated his magic. Green light poured into Morton, and not too long after Morton was moving around again. They told him what was going on and he excitedly said he would help them. Orange light glowed from his hands and he shot fist shaped projectiles into the wall, exploding a big hole inside. The three of them moved on to more of the many different rooms the lab had. What seemed like hundreds of labs and testing rooms, how long had these people been here? How long had they wanted them? Where were the rest of their siblings? Lemmy was a bit nervous. And also very tired. Constantly defending against opponents while Wendy and Morton attacked and sometimes using his healing on one of them was taking a lot from him. Still, they pushed on.

“Kraig! We need to terminate the other subjects now! Before they can all escape!” Cray yelled. Kraig was watching the cameras, seeing his guards constantly being smashed by only three of the eight test subjects. Were the souls really this powerful? Of course they were, he told himself. Why else would they have created them in the first place? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that they had reached another subject. The patient one. He seemed like he was the weakest. PATIENCE wasn’t a good trait for conflict. “KRAIG!” He supposed he should go. He almost felt bad for the children. Perhaps it was his time under Bowser making him feel that way. Oh well. DETERMINATION first. 

Larry was alright. Although he wasn’t attacking. Larry helped Lemmy by giving him energy. The four of them together made a good team. Half of them had been recovered. Only four left. Thankfully, once they had gone down the stairs, they had found Iggy’s room quickly. His purple attacks could also hit people while they were moving, so Morton was glad. For some reason, his attacks didn’t hit moving targets. On the contrary, Larry’s attacks could only hit people that were moving. Iggy stood beside Lemmy and Larry, summoning his magical purple book that shot words at enemies. It was weird, but it fit him. Wendy took a break from shooting to restore magic. Everyone was torn up and exhausted at this point, but they couldn’t give up. There was a little of something in each of them that kept them going. They thankfully got to Bowser Jr before any scientists did. He was completely unconscious, so after they found him, Morton was set to carry him until they found Roy and Ludwig. But as they were trying to leave, a large squadron of scientists and guards intercepted them. One toad in particular seemed to be conducting them. A large battle ensued, but in the end the koopalings were victorious. They definitely needed a break, though. Larry managed to keep Lemmy energized enough to heal everyone else. But they were both completely exhausted. Just walking was almost too much for them. Carrying Bowser Jr was also no small feat for Morton. Iggy and Wendy went off to search for the others while the group of four waited. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be many enemies left to stop them. The leader toad had escaped along with some of the other scientists, but all the guards had been dealt with. Their bodies laid around on the ground. Not too much later, Wendy and Iggy came back with Ludwig, who was releasing dark blue magic from his hands uncontrollably. It kind of tickled when the others touched it. They had to find Roy. Then they could escape. The magic replenished Lemmy and Larry somewhat, and they were able to move again. Only Roy was left to find. They tore through every room, getting increasingly more and more desperate.

Kraig knew time was running out. Cray had notified him that seven of eight subjects had escaped, saying that he had tried to deal with them himself, but was unable to. The only problem was, this soul wouldn’t die. It would break temporarily, but then it would fuse back together and the subject wouldn’t die. The subject themself had completely paled, its body looking almost completely drained. Part of its body was melting, and was dripping all over the floor. Still, the soul blazed red, unwilling to give up. By the minute, the subject was less and less recognizable. Kraig gave up. This thing wasn’t going to die. He escaped with what little forces they had left to their hovercraft. Cray soon joined him, and they were off, the facility set to self-destruct in half an hour. They would find a place to reestablish themselves. And then they would continue their research. 

The power had shut off, and flashing red lights were the only thing still on. The faint sound of alarms blaring could be heard from above. The koopalings knew they had to get out of there quickly. They just didn’t know where the exit was. And they didn’t have Roy. Wendy refused to leave him behind. They kept searching and searching, both for an exit and for Roy, until a message startled all of them. “Self Destruct in ten minutes. Self Destruct in ten minutes.” “This place is gonna explode? What’re we gonna do?!” Larry asked, starting to cry. “We’re gonna find Roy, first of all. Then we’ll escape. If nothing else, we’ll die together.” Wendy said. It wasn’t very comforting to anyone. But, after another five minutes, they found Roy. Or a puddle of him. The only identifiable part of him was the sunglasses he always wore. They all could only stare. The time was ticking, but they couldn’t care less. They just sat in the room with him, completely despondent. Five seconds left. They held each other’s hands, with Bowser Jr lying in Morton’s lap. The melting had started to spread to Wendy and Larry, who were touching Roy’s melted body. They all looked at each other as a massive explosion overtook the whole mountain, leaving nothing left. Roy’s soul cracked, and then shattered. But he didn’t want to die. They all had so much to live for. Their futures didn’t get to be taken away just like that. He refused to die. He felt a strange power build up inside his soul pieces. The power to CONTINUE. A button appeared in front of him. He pressed it in a heartbeat. Then, everything went black.


	6. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter was were my original thought ended. It doesn't finish completely, but there's a good amount of stuff here.
> 
> Bowser and Peach reunite with the Koopa Kids.

Bowser’s ship shook as one of the mountains below completely exploded. He immediately ordered for his fleet to stop flying forward. Were they being attacked? What was that? His ship lowered, and all he could see was fire and exploded mountain rubble. But he got a call from Peach. “My ship detects life signatures down there! We have to find them!” Bowser’s eyes widened. “You’re here! Peach why-“ “I’m going down there!” “Wait!” She hung up and one of her ships started descending to the ground. She was lucky she was Peach. He wouldn’t take that amount of interruption from anyone else. But why did she have to come? It could be dangerous! Her disregard for her own personal safety really bugged Bowser. It was the reason he had been able to kidnap her the first few times before they really knew each other. A red light filled the air, instantly getting his attention. What was- His phone rang. “What is- “BOWSER! We’ve found them!”

In an instant, his ship was down to the ground and he was rushing to her. She found them? How? Where?! He spotted her and ran. He looked down, and there they were. All alive. And they all looked alright. “They’re okay!” Tears came to his eyes. They were alright. And Peach was here with him. He had no idea what had happened to them, but he would never let it happen to them again. Peach’s team of medical toads carefully moved them onto stretchers and onto his ship. Him and Peach flew back to the Darklands with them, Peach telling the rest of her guard that she was fine and sending them back to her kingdom. They didn’t talk much as they traveled back to the Darklands. None of his children had woken up yet, and they were all still very worried. Once they had docked, the children were quickly unloaded into the medical wing where they were given IVs and lain in medical beds. They waited for a while until one of them woke up, telling each other some stories to lighten the mood. Roy woke up first and seemed very confused and relieved. He was feeling himself, rubbing and scratching and pinching just to see if he was actually whole. It all was kind of weird for Bowser and Peach, but he was awake! They rushed over to him and Peach wrapped him in a hug. Red dusted his cheeks and he let out a small noise of protest. She eventually let go and Bowser pulled up his sunglasses. He stared into Roy’s reddish pink eyes. They had darkened. Bowser wondered when they’d done that. “Are you ok?” He asked. Roy looked away from him, not used to direct eye contact. “Y-Yeah.” “What happened?” “I don’ know.” His eyes unfocused. His soul hurt. Oh right. That was probably important. He remembered more. Bowser and Peach looked worried. “I-I’m sorry. I should show ya this. They gave it to me.” They stared expectantly at him. Slowly red light began to emerge from his chest. It culminated in a little red heart, floating above his chest. “What is that?” Bowser asked. “A soul. We all have one. I think.” Bowser grabbed it. Roy gasped and his body arched. Bowser quickly let go. “Don’ touch it. It’s like our lives or somethin’. If it breaks we die.” Peach gasped and Bowser cursed his reckless decisions. “How do you know that?” Peach asked. Roy looked down. “I jus’ do.” More of them were starting to wake up. Larry yawned and Ludwig bolted upright. The same dark blue magic began to pour out of his hands before he realized where he was. “Why am I at the castle? Didn’t we get-“ he looked over at Roy. “Wait what?! You’re not a-“ “I’m FINE, Ludwig.” He put his finger over his mouth. Bowser and Peach didn’t need to know about that. Ludwig seemed to disagree, but kept his mouth shut. Bowser and Peach turned to him and did the same thing they did to Roy. He looked just as flustered. “Ludwig.” Bowser asked, “Do you have one of those things as well?” Ludwig nodded, and showed them his dark blue soul. “It’s a different color! What does that mean?” Bowser asked. Ludwig shrugged. “I have absolutely no idea.” “You mean, you have abSOULutely no idea.” Lemmy piped up from his bed. Ludwig rolled his eyes. Bowser and Peach split up between Larry and Lemmy, hugging them and looking at the color of their souls. Cyan and Green. “Are all of them different colors?” Peach asked. With Morton and Wendy being the next ones up to bat, they checked and found Orange and Yellow. “We have a little rainbow!” Peach said excitedly. “Oh, I’m so glad all of you are okay! All we need now is Jr!” They waited for a bit, and during that time, all of the koopalings discussed amongst themselves about what had happened. “So you escaped first Wendy?” Roy smiled. “That doesn’ surprise me at all. They didn’ stand a chance against you.” Wendy smiled back at her brother. “It also helps that I can make a giant yellow gun from my hands.” “Wait what? You gotta show me!” “Hey I can make something too!” Lemmy piped up. “So can I.” said Morton. “I assume that we can all make something.” Ludwig predicted. “We should see what we all can do!” Larry said, excited. They were all curious to see what their new powers were, so it was decided they would go to the training room later and test them out. Meanwhile, Bowser Jr was finally waking up. Bowser was, of course, very excited to have Jr awake. That meant everyone was safe again. If not a little altered. Jr still seemed very exhausted, however. He barely said a word before he leaned back and fell asleep again. Maybe he just needed more time. Bowser carried him up to his room to rest. Peach followed the rest of the koopalings to the training room to see what they were doing. 

Once everyone was there, they set up a training dummy to test their abilities out on. Wendy went first, by Roy’s request. Everyone watched as she readied herself. Peach in particular was curious as to what was going on. Wendy glared at the dummy, and a neon yellow magic began to emanate from her hands. It swirled around her like clouds, before taking the shape of a pistol. By her command, the magical gun fired bursts of energy at its target. They exploded on impact, completely obliterating the dummy. Wendy epically turned her back on the explosion and walked away. The rest of them watched in awe during the entire performance. They all cheered, Roy being especially loud, at the display of power. Lemmy quickly volunteered to go next, knowing exactly what he could do with his green magic. After all, he’d gotten a lot of practice. He walked up to the destroyed dummy, and surrounded himself with green magic. Grabbing all the pieces and holding them together, he let the magic flow through his fingers. Gradually, the dummy came back together, and before long, it was as good as new. He presented the final product to his audience. Peach was very impressed. But he had something else to show them. “Hey Wendy, come and shoot your gun at me.” Everyone was shocked except for Wendy, who already had experienced it herself. She did exactly what she had done before, except she waited for Lemmy to be ready. Once he gave her the nod, she fired. Everyone looked on with shock as the smoke cleared. Wendy’s projectiles had been completely blocked by a solid green frying pan. “You can make a shield? Interesting! That along with the healing makes you more of a support class.” Iggy said. “Maybe I should make a chart! There’s many new scientific endeavors to be explored with all this new data!” Iggy got up to leave, but Lemmy stopped him. “Wait! Don’t you wanna see everyone else? You still need to show everyone your power! Besides, it’ll be easier to make that chart when you have data from everyone.” Iggy paused. “Fine. But I’m going next!” Everyone seemed okay with that. Iggy stood on the opposite side of the field, and now purple magic surrounded him. His glasses clouded, but it didn’t seem to bother him at all. A book was born from the magic, and it’s pages turned erratically. Then, words flew out of the book and quickly rammed themselves into the dummy, destroying it again. Iggy shook, and all of the magic disappeared instantly. He laughed. “Bahaha! I’m a mage class!” Ludwig jumped in after that, showing off his long range ballet slipper attack. He had no idea why they were ballet slippers, but even trying his hardest, he couldn’t change their form. Hitting something with them made something weird happen though. The object would gain a blue glow around it, and then Ludwig could move it around however he liked. Only for a limited time, however. Larry and Morton went together after that, both showing off their magic’s weird properties. Cyan and Orange were limited for some reason. When Larry attacked the dummy that had been fixed by Lemmy again, nothing happened. The knife slashes from his arms just phased right through. After Ludwig started moving it with his magic though, the dummy was obliterated like usual. Morton’s was the opposite. While the dummy was still moving, his orange fist blasts did nothing. But when Ludwig’s hold on the dummy ran out, and it was still again, Morton’s magic followed the rest in destroying it. 

Everyone was interested in seeing Roy’s magic, since none of them had gotten any chance before. Something was different when he tried to summon his magic. The dummy became very clear in his vision, and everything else around him faded to black. Four buttons appeared in front of him. FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, and MERCY. Roy was curious. What did they do? He ignored the more obvious two and went for ITEM first. There didn’t seem to be anything there. ACT had a couple of options behind it. CHECK told him that it was a dummy. Pressing TALK made him feel compelled to talk to it. “So, uh, nice weather we’re havin’.” It didn’t seem much for conversation. It only partially crossed his mind that pressing a button had forced him to talk to an inanimate object. FIGHT was an easy one. Pressing that gave him the ability to swing a glowing red stick at the dummy. A health bar above it declined slightly. He had some pretty bad aim. MERCY was the last option. RUN didn’t seem like a very good idea, so Roy chose SPARE. As soon as he hit that, his vision went back to normal and everyone was watching him again. “What was that?” Larry asked. Roy didn’t know. “Maybe someone needs to fight me. Dummies probly make it weird or somethin’.” Wendy volunteered. “D’you think you’ll be able to defend yourself, Roy?” Roy laughed. Was that a joke? “Yeah. I’ll be fine.” Wendy walked back onto the battlefield and stood in front of Roy, ready. Roy was filled with DETERMINATION. As soon as he focused on Wendy, the same weird black and white world appeared again. Roy chose ACT. CHECKing Wendy, he saw that she had 20 attack and 20 defense. She had 1,000 health. Roy looked and saw that his heath was only 20. Why was it so low? He also had no defense. He was a little worried. Wendy unknowingly skipped her turn by talking to Lemmy who she could apparently still see. FIGHT called to him. Something was off about all this stuff. The stick slashed and did five damage. Wendy flinched a bit, but then she looked confused. “Is that the best you got Roy? Don’t hold out on me just because I’m your favorite sibling.” Roy didn’t answer, so she just shrugged. Alright then, get ready for my attack!” Roy’s soul was pulled out of his body into a black box in front of him. What was going on? He was panicking now. The gun’s bullets entered the box, flying erratically all over the place. Thankfully, he found that he could move his soul by using his mind. The bullets were everywhere though, and he couldn’t possibly avoid them all. One of the projectiles hit his soul directly, and he felt terrible pain all throughout his body. Distracted, another bullet hit his soul, and his HP dropped to zero. The world faded from him, and his body lay unmoving. No! What happened? Did he die? No, he couldn’t die like that! He refused to die. The next moment, he was back in the training room, with Wendy. She was ready to fight him. Wait, hadn’t they already…? Battle time. Okay, so he couldn’t die this time. The universe was giving him a second chance. No need to check this time, he swung his stick. He hit her directly. 100 damage was nothing to scoff at. Wendy gasped this time. “Wow, I wasn’t really expecting that. Great job, Roy. I think that was a good enough test.” Wendy was sparing him. He was about to spare her too, when something urged him to hit the fight button again. He looked over at it, and it was calling to him. His hand shifted. The next attack with the stick did 5,000 damage. Wendy clutched herself where he had slashed her. And stared, unbelieving. Roy watched her crumble to dust, horrified. Her soul shattered, and something called LV rose to three. Color returned, and everyone was screaming. He could only stare blankly for a bit, before something stabbed through him and he died again. 

This time, he could see a RESET button. He hit that unthinkingly, once again taking him to before the battle. Wendy was alive again, but Roy was visibly shaken. The battle started, and she seemed to notice that something was wrong. “Roy? Are you okay?” Roy only stared at her, relieved. This battle needed to end. He was reluctant to hit her, with the fear that he might kill her again. He would never let those thoughts in the back of his mind tell him what to do ever again. He hit the MERCY button, and spared Wendy. The battle ended, and she seemed confused. “Hey, Roy? What’s going on?” Roy shook his head. “I-I can’t do this righ’ now. I’m tired.” Wendy looked concerned. “You need to tell me what’s wrong with you. You’re not acting normal right now.” Roy turned to her. “Look, I’m jus’ tired, alright? With all that happened earlier, I need a break. I’m goin’ to my room.” “Wait Roy no- Larry started, but was interrupted by Roy. “I’m going!” He ran out of the room and stomped back to his own. He had just killed Wendy! But then he didn’t? What was going on? He wanted to feel happy again! Roy threw himself into his bed and lay there a bit before finally falling asleep. Unfortunately for the koopaling, what would come in the future was anything but logical.


End file.
